


everybody needs someone beside 'em

by coupe_de_foudre



Series: social media!au [6]
Category: The Pacific (TV)
Genre: 5 Things, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:22:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23771512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coupe_de_foudre/pseuds/coupe_de_foudre
Summary: It wouldn't be a stretch to call Andy and Eddie the 'dads' of their group.Which explains why the group didn’t think twice when heading straight to their room during a disagreement.-or 5 times everyone admired Andy and Eddie and 1 time they were all scarred by them
Relationships: Andrew A. "Ack-Ack" Haldane/Edward "Hillbilly" Jones, Jay De L'Eau/Bill Leyden, Merriell "Snafu" Shelton/Eugene Sledge, Robert Leckie/Bill "Hoosier" Smith
Series: social media!au [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1694755
Comments: 10
Kudos: 26





	everybody needs someone beside 'em

**Author's Note:**

> This was sent as a request over on [Tumblr](https://a-beautiful-struggle-of-life.tumblr.com/post/616023253735145472/everybody-needs-someone-beside-em) for my social media!au, I had a lot of fun writing it ngl.
> 
> I hope it's okay :)

Snafu leans heavily into Andy's side, confident in the fact that his friend will keep him from falling and landing flat on his face. Chuckler had taken Runner and the girls back a couple hours ago, leaving the last of them to move on to the cocktail bar. 

Big mistake.

Snafu never wants to mix his drinks like that again. Although he knows, even in this inebriated state, that it’s bound to make a repeat occurrence.

“C'mon, Snaf,” Andy chuckles when he sways into the wall as they stumble together up the last flight of stairs to their floor. Eddie has gone ahead with a very drunk Bill and Eugene. 

“How’d ya do it?” Snafu suddenly asks, and oh...okay, he’s in that sort of mood is he?

Andy fixes him with a puzzled look – or, at least, that’s what Snafu thinks it is. His face is kind of blurred. “Do what? Walk up the steps?”

“Noooo,” Snafu drawls out, swatting Andy's face but barely brushing his cheek. “You an' Eddie.”

“What?” 

“You been together...what, two years now?”

“Three.” Andy corrects, placing a steady hand to the small of Snafu's back when he slips a little. “What’s that got to do with anything though? You’re with Eugene, aren’t you?”

Snafu sighs, leaning into Andy’s side more. “Yeah. Nearly a year now. But...nah it’s stupid.”

“Nothing's stupid.”

“I just wonder sometimes if we'll make it. Like you two.” Snafu admits, and even though he isn’t completely sober and will probably regret this tomorrow – if he remembers – it still feels like a huge weight has just been lifted from him. “Sometimes I worry he’ll realise he deserves better. An' he'll leave me for some posh doctor know-it-all or somethin’.”

Andy slings his arm around Snafu's shoulder, holding him close. “Snafu, come on. It's Eugene you’re talking about. We’ve all seen the way he looks at you, like you hung the fucking moon and the stars. And, let’s be honest, you ain’t that special.”

Snafu hits his friend’s chest when he laughs. “Dick.”

Andy ruffles his hair, manoeuvring them both through the door leading from the stairs to the hallway. Not for the first time, Snafu grumbles about his room being the furthest down.

“Listen,” Andy says as they neat Snafu's room, keeping his voice down in case their friends are sleeping already, “Eugene loves you. Any fool can see that. You aren’t ever going to know how long that might last so just enjoy it while you’ve got it. For now, Eugene is yours and he doesn’t seem to want anybody else. Isn’t that enough?”

Snafu leans against his room door as they finally stop outside it. Andy is staring him down, using his soccer captain glare that dares anybody to question him. He nods. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess it is.”

“Good.” Andy smiles. He pats Snafu on the shoulder, “Now get some sleep.”

“Yes, sir.” Snafu mock salutes, fumbling with the lock on his door – thankful that Burgie was staying with Flo tonight because he really doesn’t need another lecture from him. 

Andy shakes his head but he’s still smiling when he heads back down the hallway towards his own room. Snafu watches with a fondness when he notices Andy’s door open before he has chance to unlock it, getting pulled in with a giggle that echoes down the hall. 

_________

Jay has no idea what’s happening for a couple of minutes. Last thing he remembers is leaning over his textbook scribbling notes in the margins and his brain working at double speed to think up a suitable introduction for his essay. 

Next thing he knows, he’s being hauled from his seat and ushered out of the library. 

“My stuff...” he mumbles, reaching out behind him. A voice chuckles, low and deep, and a hand wraps around him to keep him upright.

“Andy has it, don’t worry.” the same voice says and oh...

Jay turns to his side and is met with a smiling Eddie. Andy behind them balancing his endless pile of textbooks and mock papers.

“Did I fall asleep again?” he groaned.

Eddie raises an eyebrow, “That happen often, huh?”

Jay just sighs, dropping his head. It does. Especially lately. But he can’t help it, studying two classes both relying heavily on exams and essays was bound to have it’s downsides. He just has to remind himself that it’ll all be worth it in the end.

“Just don’t mention it to Bill.” he says, flashbacks of the last time Bill had found him passed out in a pile of his notes and had gone mad – lecturing him about getting a decent night's sleep and not over-working himself to death. 

There’s a small sound from Andy and Jay turns to find him and Eddie sharing a guilty look. He frowns at them.

“What?”

Eddie meets his eyes again, worrying his lip between his teeth. “Umm...I may have already messaged him.”

“What? Why?”

“Well we weren’t gonna send you back to your asshole of a roommate in this state.” Andy chimes in, and Jay glares at him. Andy stands his ground though, stern eyes challenging his own. “Jay, come on. It’s just Bill.”

“Bill gets funny over this shit.” Jay finds himself mumbling, sounding like a petulant kid.

Eddie laughs, ruffling his already dishevelled hair. “Because he cares.”

Jay huffs. He doesn’t argue, though.

It’s not long before they’re outside Bill and Eugene's room, Andy knocking on the door and Bill coming to open it almost instantly. The look his boyfriend shoots him is a mixture of disapproval and worry and suddenly Jay feels like a dick.

After all, he had promised not to do this again.

“Thanks, guys.” Bill says as he moves to the side to let Jay stumble into the room – immediately flopping face-first onto Bill’s bed – and takes Jay’s things from Andy.

“Don't mention it.” Andy says at the same time as Eddie tells Bill to take good care of him. Jay isn’t sure exactly what Bill responds with because he’s drifted off to sleep before he even hears the door shut.

_________

“Hey, fuck off!” Snafu cries, pushing Burgie. Burgie laughs, shaking his head and lifting his controller out of Snafu's reach. “C'mon, man! Blue Yoshi is mine, everyone knows that!”

“Well I want him today.”

“He’s mine!”

Eugene cuts in, nudging Snafu with his foot from where he’s sat behind them. “You can always be dark blue Yoshi.”

Snafu turns to send him a look of horror. “What the- Are you serious?” Eugene raises an eyebrow, meeting Runner's gaze from across the room. “It's light blue Yoshi or no Yoshi at all.”

Burgie smirks, “Well then I guess it’s no Yoshi for you.”

“You fucker, I oughta-” 

He’s cut off by the common room door opening and the waft of pizza filtering through. Everyone turns to greet to newcomers with wide smiles.

“Dinner’s up!” Andy sings, raising a stack of pizza fit to feed an army. Eddie chuckles from behind him, a bag of soda in his arm.

“My heros!” Bill cries, jumping up to help Andy get the food laid out in the space to the side of the group. 

Eddie chucks something to Burgie, “Got ya some of that chocolate you like.”

Burgie looks at it like it’s his first-born, grateful smile then shot in Eddie’s direction. “Nut-free?”

“Nut-free.”

“Thanks, man!”

Snafu huffs, “He don’t deserve it, he stole my son.”

Andy quirks an eyebrow, looking over his shoulder towards the two bickering friends. “Light blue Yoshi?”

“Snafu's throwing a fit over it.” Runner laughs, reaching down into the bag Eddie had dumped on the ground by his feet. He hands a soda to Chuckler before taking one for himself.

“Burgie,” Andy sighs, passing one of the pizza boxes over to Jay in the corner currently spread out over one of the lime green bean bags. “Let Snafu have him.”

“What?”

“Ha!”

“We don’t need to listen to him bitch all night long.” Andy explains. A couple of them laugh.

Snafu crosses his arms and shoots Burgie a smug look.

Burgie sighs, shaking his head but letting Snafu be his favourite character. “Un-fucking-believable.”

Unsurprisingly, there were no more meaningless arguments for the rest of the night. 

_________

Eddie claps his hands, standing in the aisle of the mini-bus and casting his eyes over the team. “Alright, so we lost.” There’s a grumbled chorus of disappointment and curse words. “So what?”

“We lost to Heather Field.” Snafu points out from the back of the bus, damp curls sticking to his forehead. 

“Sure, it’s not ideal. But it wasn’t a huge loss.” Andy chips in. 

The team fix their co-captains with disbelieving looks. This game had been their first away one of the season and they’d lost. How can that not be bad?

“Listen,” Eddie starts up, sounding much too calm compared to how Bill feels right now. He’s livid, bruised knee reminding him of his mistake that cost them a goal. But Andy had already told him not to dwell on it. “We lost by two goals. That’s fixable. If we head into the next game stronger than before, I’m sure we can gain those back!”

Hoosier scoffs from behind Bill and Bill finds himself smirking. “How’d you expect us to do that?”

“By turning up to practice on time,” Andy says, and the knowing look at Hoosier is enough to shut down any further protests he might have. “By training hard, by focusing on our objectives.”

Eddie nods. There’s a quiet hum of agreement throughout the bus.

“You’re good guys. Good at soccer and good as a team. I’ve no doubt that we can bounce back from this.” Andy says, and his tone leaves no room for arguments. Bill isn’t so sure, but he guesses they can’t really give up on day one. Besides, they Andy was right; they are a good team.

Maybe they _can_ bounce back.

_________

Andy leans his head on Eddie’s shoulder, serene smile on his face as he sings along to the song Eddie’s playing on his guitar. 

The group of friends are lounging around on the field behind campus, the sky a pale lilac as the sun begins to set above their heads. Hoosier hums slightly out of tune, head resting in Leckie’s lap as he watches the clouds form into strange shapes and drift apart in an endless cycle.

There’s a quiet chatter surrounding the group, everyone relaxed and happy for a change. With finals coming up, Andy and Eddie had dragged everyone outside for a night away from studying; everyone's minds were pretty much fried from staring at notes and writing up revision all day.

Runner has gathered a couple of them together to play a game of cards, Snafu is listing out different flowers to Eugene – purposely pronouncing them wrong just to get his boyfriend to laugh. It’s nice.

“What’re you thinking about?” Leckie smiles down at him, fingers stilling in their path through Hoosier's hair.

Hoosier flickers his gaze from the sky to his boyfriend, matching his smile. “Nothing.”

“Ah,” Leckie smirks, dipping down to graze his teeth over Hoosier's nose. “Nothing new there then.”

Hoosier laughs, swatting at his boyfriend’s chest but melting when lips press to his own. He sighs into the kiss, fingers dancing over Leckie's jaw.

They pull apart when there’s a wolf-whistle, no doubt from Snafu or Runner, and Bill shouts at them to get a room. Leckie chuckles, close enough still that his warm breath ghosts over Hoosier's cheek and he smiles. 

“Fuck off, Bill.” Hoosier calls, not looking away from Leckie.

Leckie's smile grows impossibly wider. “Love you.”

Hoosier rolls his eyes but pulls him down into a swift kiss. “Love you too.” he whispers. 

“Gross.” Eddie laughs, still strumming out some cheesy song that Hoosier no longer recognises. 

“Says you.” Hoosier shoots back. Everyone laughs. 

They should do this more often, Hoosier decides.

_________

Andy and Eddie had always made sure that they all knew their door is always open for them. Whether they need to borrow some money, need comforting, need help studying – the list is endless. 

Which explains why the group didn’t think twice when heading straight to their room during a disagreement.

“Seriously, he’s a total dick!” Snafu says, Hoosier backing him up.

“He’s a hero!” Bill claims.

“Tony was a hero too!”

“He wasn’t!”

“He was! As well as a genius, and a billionaire!”

“He killed people!”

“So did Captain America!”

The argument carries on as they barge into Andy and Eddie’s room, about to demand someone to settle once and for all who was the better of the two characters. It’s not the first time they’ve come to then to resolve such a meaningless disagreement.

The last thing they expected to see upon pushing their way into the room is a naked Eddie straddling an equally exposed Andy, hands braced on Andy's chest, skin slicked with sweat and covered in angry purple bruises. Andy had his fingers gripping Eddie’s hips, nails most definitely piercing skin, and there’s deep bite mark on his collarbone.

Eddie stills his movements above Andy at the sound of their friends charging into the room. “Fuck...” he groans, voice uncharacteristically deep and hoarse. 

They both turn to meet their friends’ shocked stares, Eddie's eyes fluttering briefly and biting at his lip when Andy shifts slightly underneath him.

The silence is deafening.

It’s Burgie that breaks it first, clapping and spinning on his heel at the front of the group. Chuckler quickly copies his movement and they both begin ushering the group out of the room with muttered apologies slipping from their mouths. Nobody dares look back over at their two friends on the bed.

The door slams behind them with an echoing bang.

Everyone stands in the hall sharing looks of disbelief. Which is ridiculous, really, because they all know Andy and Eddie are dating. They’d been together before they even started college. Yet, somehow, nobody had imagined them...like that.

They just weren’t the sort of couple to talk about their private life.

“Man, I always knew Hillbilly was ripped but damn...” Snafu suddenly drawls out, lazy smirk on his face. Eugene smacks him upside the head with a near permanent blush on his face.

Hoosier shrugs. “Hey, I’d ride Ack-ack any day, fuck.” 

Burgie rolls his eyes. Runner bites back a laugh.

Leckie is shaking his head but there’s a smirk on his face. “I ain’t getting that image outta my head for a while.”

Hoosier leans into his boyfriend with an equally dangerous smirk. “Don’t know why you’d wanna.”

A shuddered moan resounding from the room behind them suddenly reminds them that they’re still stood in the hall. Everyone pales for the second time in the space of ten minutes.

Andy can be heard rambling incoherently, voice barely audible from where they’re stood. It doesn’t matter that they can’t understand what he’s saying; the intention behind his words is made pretty obvious when another low moan is followed by a sharp gasp. 

Bill groans, pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. “I’m gonna need so much therapy after this.”

The others laugh.

A breathy, “ _Andy...._ ” is enough to jolt them all back into action, everyone rushing away from the room – earlier argument forgotten for now.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! Feedback is always appreciated <3


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